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One by one the portals seemed to close and vanish. The dreamers that remained, those from the Isle, those from Auradon, would find themselves in one of the odd resting places, as described below. Each resting place had a single exit, not counting the transport stones, and that exit led to a mist filled dim maze. With dream logic each would feel that there was some reason to traverse the maze though they somehow knew it would be no easy task.
And no easy task was it indeed. Part of the issue was the labyrinth itself, a dark shadowed place of mists and fogs that obscure the walls and floor, that hide turns and make walls seem like walkways. There is an eerie haunting noise that springs up sometimes, like wind blowing across a narrow cave opening. But it is usually heard only when the wind was absent. And that wind? Sporadic, unpredictable, sometimes cold and chilling in more ways than one. Sometimes hot and humid.
This would be a great place for magic users to shine to help each other out, or since the maze was tall but seemed to open above to nothingness, those who could fly or air walk would seem to be able to help others easily win through. Except there is a problem... Well a few problems. But they all came down to the same basic issue. Every person, when in the maze, was, for reasons that may or may not make sense with dream logic, locked in a human looking body without access to any magic, powers, or inhuman biology. But on the other side... No one is or will get hungry. Or sleepy. Or need the bathroom.
But everyone looks human, even if they did not before. And the human form they are in is mostly static. Shape changers cannot change. Those who normally have wings no longer do. And even those who normally cannot be seen - Charas, ghosts, maybe even a Kwami - are also in independent human looking bodies. For some this could be wonderful, for others... The dream may already be a nightmare.
While their forms are static, their clothes however are somewhat malleable. Nothing that can grant anything useful, a hairpin removed vanishes before it could be used as a chisel or a pry. Or even as a lock pick. But someone who finds themselves for example in a hated long black coat could easily shift themselves into pants and a shirt for their choosing. And people who are used to magical expression can at least have mood outfits. There was another thing that could change as well, but it might take a while to discover it for some. The dreamers can be any age up until their oldest in game form. So adults can choose to be children again, if they wished. And yes this can help getting under things or getting taller to climb over things. But the ages will seem like an age slider on the same person, and there will be fewer changes perhaps than there were as the person actually grew up. Again, this makes sense in situ, because of dream logic.
In fact, for some suddenly in a human body... They might not recall ever having another form. Or maybe they do and this is really startling. There is a lot of room to play there. But one thing is clear, everyone is on equal footing for whatever the maze has to offer. No one has more or less powers than anyone else. And as no one will tire, endurance is not the factor it might normally be. So their advantages will lie in their ability to think creatively, their ability to keep going even when things seem hopeless. Their ability to work well with others. And, as they will soon learn, their logic.
For the maze is more than just twisting passageways of walls too smooth and too high to scale and a floor too covered in roiling mist to examine. The maze is littered with hidden transport stones. Each is so small that a single foot covers it completely, even the foot of a child, and when touched it transports the person who touched it and then is expended. Transport stones can take a dreamer to another part of the maze, or to a resting room or... To one of the puzzle rooms. But rarely will they arrive with whomever they had just been walking with. You know that rule about not splitting the party...? Yeah, The maze has never heard of it either.
The resting spaces are places where there are no puzzles. There may be food or other amenities, but everything in every resting space is designed to need to be used by at least two people at the same time. Everything about them seems to be encouraging people to work together, or play together, or even just lounge together. While powers are still nerfed in resting spaces, characters can be there in their maze-forms or in their own natural bodies if those things differ. Age and clothing can be played with in the resting spaces just as they can in the maze.
In fact, other than an attempt to enforce extravertism the resting rooms make no demands of the people within them. They may leave whenever they wish. There are no riddles or puzzles here except possibly the jigsaw version or in bound books for reading aloud. These are spaces that seem to be calmer places. The tension of the maze is only in a resting space if a dreamer brings it with them. One could bypass the whole maze if they are willing to ignore the nagging dream-like certainty that there is a reason to explore, and spend the whole time in a resting place. It is a place designed to be comfortable for everyone. Except, perhaps, the painfully shy.
That said, though, no resting place can ever have more than four people in it at a time. The exit is a one way passage, once someone leaves they only return if a transport stone randomly drops them there again. But no one will be forced to leave, except by their fellow dreamers. Or their own desperation to be somewhere less people-y. Each resting place does have a static transport stone, but they are often cleverly hidden and take two people to find it, though if they both touch it they will probably not both go to the same place.
The puzzle rooms however.... Those are a different story. They are always braced by at least two dreamers at a time, and often have NPCs dredged from the deepest parts of the dreamer's minds. Each poses a trial or trouble that needs to be overcome. Dreamers entering a puzzle room will feel there is a strong reason to complete the puzzle though they can't quite recall why. Just that it was important. All PC dreamers can collectively choose to quit a puzzle together, and if they do they will each be sent to a different resting space. But no one PC can leave a puzzle on their own, so noone can be abandoned in a situation they suddenly cannot "win".
Winning looks different in different puzzle rooms, of course. Each has its own victory condition. But there is one commonality amongst all the puzzle rooms.... And it is an important one. Once anyone leaves a puzzle room they find their memories of it hazy at best, where absent is the more common response. They cannot remember enough to tell anyone else what puzzle they faced when in a resting space or in the maze itself. And they certainly cannot remember how they won through. They might remember who was there with them, PC and NPC alike. And that they felt they needed to solve... Something. What that something was or how they solved it however, they could not recall. But they couldn't recall in that dream logic weird way where suddenly you are in a room full of masks at the brink of an active volcano and maybe it is weird that you can't remember how you got there, but that gap is hardly the thing that is bothering you just then.....
The Resting Spaces
The Resting Spaces are places where the character transformation can be turned off, though powers are still nerfed. These are spaces designed to encourage cooperation, but also places to rest, blow off some steam, and just relax.
The walls of the room bowed outward and seemed to be made of polished metal that had been painted pale baby blue with white flowers painted on with more passion than artistry. But the walls were hard to see because they were draped with purple and gold gauze attached at celling or floor at unusual asymptotical angles.
One might think that the gauze would lend itself to soft dim lights. One would be wrong in this case as the gold washed rounded dome like ceiling was dotted with bright glaring white halogen, neon, or xenon looking lightbulbs which were curved in the same loopy daisy curves of the flowers on the walls. They were so bright they were hard to look at long. Trying anyway would invariably lead to dark spots in one's visions that in this case could almost make it look like the lights had menacing faces peering down at you. But that was absurd wasn't it? Who ever heard of an evil flower?
Then there were the tables. They were low to the ground, clearly meant for people to sit at them on the floor. They were circular with baby blue tablecloths covered with white lacy runners and doilies. There were gold and white tea pots, multiple at every table. But while there were tea pots and saucers and spoons there were, oddly, no teacups. The gold tea pots steamed with a faintly purple steam but would pour out no tea when tried. The white teapots poured out tea, but it was a different kind of tea every time it was poured.
At the tables were cushions on the floor, but with arms like arm chairs. Each cushion was on what looked and felt like a wobble plate. One person sitting on it would be too low to reach the table comfortably if they were an adult and at all as a small child. But two people sitting one on either side balanced it so both could reach the table. But when one moves, the other will feel it. The cushions were all either purple or white. The white seemed an especially risky choice given the teapots that lacked teacups.
There were also larger tables freestanding here and there. These clearly were not for sitting at as they were piled high with foods. There were plates, however the plates were so heavy as to need two hands to hold, and the utensils were also weighted heavily. Eating would need two people working together, especially as the plates were too heavy for the small tables to hold without tipping over.
The food on offer was also generally in servings clearly meant for more than one person with no easy obvious way to cut them to take less. But the options were varied and tempting looking to many. There were large double slices of various kinds of cakes - coconut cream, carrot, spice, chocolate, birthday cake with white confetti in a blue cake with white cream on top instead of frosting. There was cheesecake, but the cheese seemed to be... swiss...?
There were small pies that again were twice the size of what might have been single a serving. There was pumpkin pie, two different kinds of apple pie, date pie, treacle pie, and one square pie that tasted of not much of anything, though it made one think of math. Even for a dream realm this pie was imaginary....
There were trays of honey laden baklava with pistachio dust dyed purple and scattered over the top. For those who were brave there were large squares of something that looked a little like lightly marbleized dry sandy clay. It was dry as it looked. Dryer even. Thankfully it tasted better than it felt in the mouth. It was like eating sweet subtly flavored packed sand.
There were multiple kinds of bread puddings with different lavish sauces. There were custards and jam tarts. And there were huge sandwiches cut to look like small delicate finger sandwiches. Does anyone even know what watercress actually is?
For non-food related things to do there were curved bookcases in seemingly random patterns here and there filled with books, but none of them seemed to be what they actually turned out to be. Quite a few of them seemed to just be frustrating nonsense. The rest were fantasy novels and books about magic that might have been fantasy or might have been history - In this world it could be hard to tell.
There were seats near the book cases, or sometimes inside them, but they were all just off balance, like the armed cushions, clearly meant for two to keep the seat steady. Though for adults it might be a cozy two.
For those attuned to colours who have spent a fair amount of time in Auradon, they might notice that the blue is not quite the Auradon Prep shade of Blue, nor is the blue or are the golds the shades generally associated with Ben. And the purple is more reddish than the purples that Mal tends to play with.
From somewhere generally upwards, a song is playing.
This Resting Space was only a room in that it had walls and a ceiling. Both seemed distant, painted like open sky on a mostly clear day. The room itself spread out like a meadow in all directions seemingly. Only the door seemed close, and oddly it didn't seem to actually be part of the wall it was in theory nearest to.
The floor was a carpet of different grasses. To one direction in the distance was a field of roses in all manner of darker colours, and the further into the roses one went the more intricate the petals seemed. At the outer most set of roses they seemed to be one colour tipped in another. But further in the two colours formed ever more complex and interesting designs. But there were thick ropes of thorny vines making getting further in difficult. For one alone, it would be impossible to get far in at all without taking a lot of painful wounds from the thorns. But two together... The thorns were spaced far enough apart that someone could hold a vine up for someone else to pass under, but they would then need the vine held for them in order to pass under themselves.
Working together it would take a half hour or more to get to the deep center of the roses, but for some it would be very worth the time and effort, for the roses in the center are beautiful in a way that they only could be in a dream. The patterns looked like deliberate designs, and more... When the wind moved the designs seemed almost to move as well. On one a silhouette of a couple seemed to dance against the purple background of the petals. On another red drops seemed to fall like rain over black petals. Dark purple vines on a black and red background. Each rose at the center a different design, and there was a seemingly endless supply of them there.
From somewhere generally upwards, a song is playing.
If instead of the roses, one looked to another direction they would eventually come to the edge of what looks like a small pond. But with the knowledge one has in dreams without knowing, anyone approaching it knows that it is deep. Deadly deep. One can look into it safely only if someone is holding onto them as an anchor, for the water is deep enough to swallow a single person but not wide enough for two at once. So only by holding on to each other is it safe to look in the pond. But look in it long enough and you see interesting things, the kind of things that you realize you really want to talk to someone about....
More things can be found, wandering. A tall dark wood is off to one side, in the distance. The wood is deep and mysterious, but the paths, such as they are, are riddled with roots and stones so tall that two people need to work together to cross. But if someone did they are rewarded with a lovely sun dappled grove in the center. There is what looks like a rock garden with rocks covered in the softest moss ever, perfect for siting on. There is what looks like a castle, but always distant, just out of reach. And there is a single huge tree in the center that sparkles with rain in sun, even though it is not raining.
And to the last cardinal direction is a place where fire and air meet. There, waiting for whomever arrives, is a rack holding a lovely costume. A pair of gossamer butterfly wings and a belt with a long tail end. Almost like... Yes. Yes it is. A kite tail. There is also a huge brazier full of different kinds of flammable material, a bellow beside. It is the ultimate trust anti-fall. Whoever wears the butterfly wings can fly, but they are counting on someone below to hold the end of the kite string and to keep the fire going at a high enough heat to create the thermals keeping them aloft, but not so high a heat that it burns them to a crisp. Also keeping the heat even with the bellows without catching the string on fire....
This Resting place looks huge at first glance. A large boat with blue sails and a beachfront town with all sorts of interesting looking shops. A closer examination would show the truth however. The shops are all false fronts. The ship has a deck, but the door below is the door back into the maze. From somewhere generally upwards, a steel drum version of this song is playing.
Still, there is plenty to do in this resting space. The sea rocks the boat gently. For those who don't get sea sick, the motion might be relaxing. The same goes for the sound of the waves gently kissing the sand. There is enough of a sandy area for people to bury each other, dig for treasure, or make sand sculptures. There are fishing rods and plenty of fish in the sea. But the fishing rods are huge and take two people to cast, and two people to reel in. There are plenty of beach toys - shovels and pails and harlequin striped beach balls with bells inside - but they are inside a large treasure chest with a heavy lid. One person has to hold the lid open while another fetches the toys, because the lid does not stay open on its own, nor does it open enough to lay flat.
As for the boat... Well relaxing on deck doesn't need two people, but setting up to relax does. The hammocks can't be put up by a single person because if they aren't hooked up at the same time, the already hooked side will slip free when the other side is being put up. Getting on and off the ship also requires help. One person to hold the ladder steady, the other to use it.
And while the shops seem to be façades with doors that are simply painted on... There are stalls outside each shop full of all sorts of merchandise and food. Anything you could think of that might reasonably be sold at a beachside stand is there for the taking. So long as you pay for it. There are stacks of sand dollars by each stall, but they need to be placed in the register before the items can be removed from the stalls, or the food and drink consumed. And the person taking it cannot be the one to run the register. Do check out the selection of toy swords! Everything from delicate foil looking weapons to large monstrosities of wood carved and painted to look metal and even wooden Keyblade looking toys.
Things bought at the stalls can be used anywhere in the rest stop. You can play with the swords on the beach, buy fancy drinks and take them to the ship if you can figure out how. You can try and use the buckets to flood the beach or to fill the sea with sand. The only places that items from the resting space cannot be brought are out into the maze or to other resting places. You can buy all you want, but enjoy it while you have it, because you can't take it with you.
This resting area is a huge glade in the middle of a deep dark wood. The trees all around seem almost alive. Well, they're trees, so they are. But this is alive more in a people way than a typical plant way. Almost like they are watching. Always watching.
One of the trees has a door in it, and the door has a symbol of crossed wands, and the doorknob is a large dark purple berry.
From somewhere generally upwards, a song is playing.
Within the glade is the sharp scent of numerous different herbs growing where grass might otherwise be. For those familiar with them, any number of herbs can be identified, but not alone. For each person can tell them apart by use of only one sense. So someone might be able to smell that one area has mint and cilantro, but it all looks and feels like grass. Another person could maybe see the different shapes of the plants, but not smell or taste the differences, and it all feels like grass. But working together enough herbs can be picked to finish the meal.
What meal? Oh, right. The glade has more than just herbs within. At its center is a giant cauldron bubbling merrily. It looks like some grand potion and shines with a golden light across the top of it, throwing back reflections of whomever looks within. Testing the potion however would prove it to be soup. But a very weak and bland soup. Mix it enough to disturb the golden sheen and one could see that the base of the soup is some sort of rock. No wait, it isn't a rock. It's a rock... Lobster....
The soup has the potential to be good, but it desperately needs flavoring help, it needs herbs. But... The right combination of herbs. While there are several combinations that would make the stew delicious, there are as many that would ruin it. Working together might be the best way to ensure a delicious meal for all.
But there is also the difficulty of how to cut the herbs. There is a large cutting board surface in the "grass" but it is bumpy and uneven at the bottom. One person will have to hold it steady while another cuts and preps on it.
Once the herbs are in, the cauldron needs to be stirred. There is a large wand in it for stirring, but it is so oversized that it will take at least two people working together to make it move.
As for serving the soup, there is a huge ladle laying nearby that seems made of strong shed bark. It is heavy and takes two hands to lift when the bowl of it is full of soup, especially given how much a rock lobster weighs. So one person should ladle while another holds the bowls up close to the lip of the cauldron.
Whenever the resting space empties, the soup reverts to its bland state once more, ready for the choices of those who would find the room next.
The floor and walls of the restaurant were made of grey stones, with the ceiling being a mix of brown wooden boards and brown shingles. The whole thing had a theme as well that didn't seem to quite go with the feeling of being in a castle that the stones implied, or a small home as the ceiling did. The restaurant did not seem to go with itself at all, honestly. It was more like someone took a whole community and tried to shove all of its aesthetics into a single structure. And from the speakers, a song is playing on repeat one. (CW, one minor bad word)
As for the theme of the restaurant... It seemed like a science lab. The tables all were shining metal. The utensils were all made to look like scientific instruments which could be interesting if not for the fact that they do a horrible job of picking up food and getting it neatly into a person's mouth.
The walls had huge computer like displays with readouts that scroll on the screens except that instead of letters and numbers and useful symbols for scientific notations all the symbols seemed to be... Various sorts of heart emojis? There is a way to turn the displays from that scroll to something more entertaining, though. All it takes is someone keying in the emoji in the order they are scrolling on the screen at the same pace they are vanishing. The problem is... The keyboard keeps remapping with every pressed button, making touch typing impossible. One person will have to read out the symbols and another type them. But how many ways can you swiftly describe different kinds of hearts...?
If anyone can manage it though the screens flicker to what seems like a television station. All of the stories feel somewhat familiar, like someone was telling your whole life with their scenes. But at least it was mostly parts that you'd want to revisit. They were killing you softly with your memories.
Of course there were other things to do in the restaurant than admire the theming or watch shows that were suspiciously similar to some of your best memories. It was a restaurant, there is food. Unfortunately only authorized personal may make the food. But on the plus side there are plenty of what looked like audio-animatronics with staff uniform looking bodies! On the minus side though they are inoperative. See, they are wind up dolls on wheels essentially. And they are huge. So one person can stand behind them to wind them up, but can't see past them to see where they need to go. And the moment their key is not being wound, they stop moving. So it will take team work, as the winder can move them as they wind, but can't see where to go, but with help of a seeing eye friend... Dinner could be served. By authorized personnel only, of course.
When it comes to cleaning up, though... Well golly, everyone is authorized for that! And with how clumsy the eating instruments are, there is plenty to clean up....
This resting place is full of larger than life sized games. The floor is a series of carpets with grids on them. One is pale brown with a darker brown grid. Another is black and red alternating squares. Another black and white alternating squares. There are pieces for various games at the same scale as the rugs. Huge Go stones as large as lazy susans. There were Othello chips like double sided serving platters. Chess and Blood Chess pieces as tall as the people waiting to play with them.
There are also countless games on tables scattered between the rugs. All manner of games, in larger forms than usual. There was a jenga like tower game. There was a game like dominos but with square tiles that had pictures of landscape parts and bits of castles and roads rather than dots.
One part of the room was an inset ice rink, complete with skates. There were game boards carved into the ice for games like tick tack toe and double tick tack toe and even.... Yeah that was a hopscotch court. On the ice. And two basketball hoops. So you can make basketball even more dangerous for a little one on one. There is also what looks like a horse drawn Zamboni, except there were no horses and the harness up close... Looked like it was for two humans rather than one horse...
Whatever game or games are chosen, from somewhere generally above, a song began to play when ever the characters also began to play.
The resting place was like a temple of stones at sunrise, all the pale stones washed in the colours of fire from the sky. The stairs were broken and turned to rubble in places, so it needs two people working together to climb to the top. At the top however it was like a whole other world. From somewhere generally above, a song began to play as the characters reached the top of the temple, however the lyrics were very muffled so that only the chorus could be fully understood. The tune would be an ear worm for some time yet, however. (CW: Star Wars cantina costumes)
From the top of the temple, the characters could see a mountain vista in the far distance with a city skyline in the middle distance. All the buildings in the skyline look like various designs of space rockets pointed upwards in blueish grey metal. But those were all too distant to reach. Closer was the large flat top of the temple. It was in the same blue grey metal, but with a huge inset pool in the middle. The pool steamed faintly and was ringed by carvings of dragons. The dragons make it hard to get into the pool without help, as someone would need to climb up to the top of them before they could jump in. Thankfully there is a ladder on the inside to get back out. This isn't the Sims.
Inside the pool are all sorts of two person pool fun items. A huge pool float like raft that will tip over if a single person tries to climb on, but with someone holding the other side down, it is doable. There are sticks and rings hanging inside the nooks of various dragon carvings that can be thrown by one person for someone else to find when they sink to the bottom. The rings are all in reds and oranges with flame motifs and the sticks are all black with silver dots and paintings of various kinds of space ships, with different ones seemingly worth different amounts of points based on the numbers on them.
There were also swim fins, but they were all connected on their outside side for three legged swimming and doubled swim rings connected on one edge. There was also a large beach ball with a bell in it.
If someone wanted to do something other than swim, near the pool was a fire pit with seats around it, but turning it on requires two people doing the complex dance described in pictograms around the rim. There were long plastic sticks for roasting marshmallows but the sticks were so long that it would be awkward for someone to put a marshmallow on their own stick, but team work makes the smores work. There were also squares of red salt chocolate but it would start melting as soon as someone tried to break it if not held by the label, but with the label it was too hard to break for one person. There was also a large box of gram crackers. The largest box of gram crackers ever, the box made of metal in the shape of a treasure chest, the top won't stay open on its own though and is very heavy, so one person might have to open it while someone else raided the box for the crackers. But do you trust that other person not to drop the lid on your back...?
This resting area was almost stifling hot for those not used to the heat. It was a huge forge filled with metal rods and tools, all built around a central furnace. There was an anvil and hammers and lots of gloves... But to keep the fire hot enough to heat the metal, the bellows would have to be constantly worked. The shovel for the coal was huge, needing two people to refill it. Thankfully someone could hammer the metal on their own, so long as someone else was holding and turning the thing being hammered. The metal rods were too large to be picked up by a single person to put into the heat or putting it on the anvil once heated. Whenever the characters would start working actively a song would start playing from somewhere deep in the heart of the forge.
There wasn't much to do in this place except working the forge, but there were all sorts of video guides on one wall to explain how to do various tasks and make various things on the anvil and with the draw plates. But the videos all need two people to ride stationary bikes at the same time to power the screens, and both will have to use the keypads on the bikes to choose the video, one bike has only the scroll features, and the other has the select, play and pause buttons. At least each bike has its own speakers so its own volume control. How much that helps when you are side by side though.... Well, maybe you can build something to cut down that issue?
The resting space is set up for those who wish to train, but there are no targets or training dummies, and there are exactly two of each sort of weapon and shield available, and the floor is broken up into different shapes and sizes of training courts. There were strips and plug in armor for fencing, large rings like for sumo, wider rectangles for more generic fighting types, and even mechanical horses for jousting.
The sky isn't off limits either. Not that anyone could fly on their own in these spaces, but there were fake wings on a rack that someone could strap on. If someone has their own wings in their natural body this either gives them back or gives them power to fly again. For those who couldn't fly before, these wings allowed for it. But no, the wings and their effects cannot be taken out of the resting place. But there are all sorts of cool weapons to mess around with that worked better in the sky, like morning stars and spears. But for those unused to wings, there might be more of a learning curve than usual there.
Thankfully there was also a first aid station on the ground with all sorts of bandages and braces and splints. There was bandage tape and cloth bandages with little metal clips, there were topical creams and packages of painkillers, but each package held only one dose and took two people to open. Or at least three hands, since they had to be gripped by three hands at once to open.
From somewhere generally above a song was playing.
Anyone who leaves the resting area will find that like the wings, they leave their wounds and aches and pains behind.
For those who needed a break for a cool down, there was a sauna and beach style outside showers to rinse off. And the area came full complete with training outfits to pull on over their clothes and fluffy robes for after washing up, but they'll find that they don't need to change into either, in fact they can't! The only way clothing can be removed in this resting area at all is in the first aid station, and then only what is needed to be moved to get to the wound. But the clothing people wear in will somehow with dream logic like certainty be comfortable enough to work out in, won't get embarrassingly clingy or transparent when wet, and will dry as soon as a robe is donned. Anyone who is still wet or smelly when they leave this resting space will not be once they pass the doorway or touch the transport stone.
The resting area looked like a twilight draped town where all the buildings are made of bricks that range from pale sandy brown through every shade of brown or orange that could be found in a city at sunset. The sky above was a soft twilight full of stars. There were all sorts of areas to explore in this rather large seeming resting space. There was an ice cream cart that had an opening on top that was so tall that one would practically have to climb up the side to get to the ice cream, but if they did it would tip over unless someone was holding the cart steady for them. Inside they would find every kind of ice cream on a stick they could imagine, whatever flavor they wanted.
There was an activities board not far from the ice cream that suggested all sorts of two person activities like hacky sack and beach ball volleyball in the wide open circular space near the poster. If two people say the name of any of the game at the same time they'll find they have everything they need for the game sitting at their feet. The border of the poster is black and white checkerboard except at the top where it has what looks like two gladiators wrestling.
There is a hidden hangout area in an underground room, but to get there two people have to work together to open the large chain link fence door. But inside the area is super comfortable so long as the people inside don't mind getting a little cozy, because every sort of chair or bench os on a pivot plate with a ball under it, one person sitting on either side will balance it, but one alone will have to constantly work to stay upright... Though that could be fun too!
Outside, there is a small train car that runs on a rail throughout the whole area, but it moves fast when no one is on it. Throughout the resting area though, there are hand breaks. When someone pulls on one, the train slows to a stop. But as soon as the break is let go of, the train zips off again. But there is a break on the roof of the train as well, so if someone gets up there, they can stop it for someone else to join them. There are also speed controls up there and hand grips so the riders can choose to take a slow cruise, or a fast thrill ride, or anything between. There is no way into the train car, but the top is a lot of fun to ride on.
Interestingly, when on top of the train the whole city, rather than looking sunset and twilight dappled, looked silver with a dark blue sky. Getting off the train would make it look sunset washed again.
There was one more area, a large circular area that took up the center of the resting place. It was ringed by stones with small window like gaps to let in light, so that inside, the sandy arena was speckled in hints of sunset shaded lights. There is a barrel of practice weapons just inside the arena and a pair of belt pouches that are filled with spheres that will pop out when the wearer is hit. None of the weapons seem to do any harm no matter where they hit or how hard they are swung or thrown. There was also a button that would summon various card board cut out looking monsters to fight. Some of them have remotes so one person can control the monster the other is fighting.
In each area of the town, a slightly different remix of a song was playing.
No matter how small though, no monster or weapon can be taken out of the arena other than the belt pouches of balls and what looked like boffer foam clubs. And even those cannot leave the resting space. Nor can the ice cream, even with hammer space. Sorry. But feel free to hum that tune, it is really catchy after a while, isn't it?
This resting space was an elegant looking ball room converted to a restaurant full of tables covered in lovely white linen tablecloths with carefully knit lace over it in a shimmering silvery wave. Over that the plates were fine china with a delicate sakura pattern, and there were matching tea cups on saucers. There were also delicate crystal cups. Each table is set for two people with chairs across from each other, but the chairs are on a long bar that is essentially a seesaw with its center of balance under the table. The table was set up so that each person can only reach their table setting if there was someone in the other seat. But there was also all the food at the center of the table, and to reach that someone would have to somehow stand on the bar when it was up on their side. Might be a challenge for characters to figure out how to feed themselves.
When they do get to the food, however, they'll find that it is a mix of high end French food, and high end Japanese food. There was everything from duck á l'range to sushi boats. Even the desserts went from cinnamon creme macrons to red bean wagashi mochi. Anything in high end French or Japanese cuisine can be found on the table, though no matter how two people sat, the things they would like best would always be on the other side, leading characters to need to find a way to work together even more.
Quietly, a song was playing over the speakers. Whenever anyone rose to dance, however, it changed in favor of... other music.
There was still a section of the ballroom floor left open for characters who want to dance. Whenever two characters both step into the open section of the dance floor, music will start. The music choices would be something made for two people to dance to from a character on the dance floor's home world. If neither world had any such music, then French or Japanese music would start instead. The music would continue until either character leaves the open area.
There was an upper floor balcony looking out over the dance floor, but the balcony was filled with dressmaker dummies and drafting tables, art supplies, sewing machine, bolts and bolts of fabric. There was lace and beading and all sorts of trim and ribbon. There were also kimono stands with lovely kimonos and changing rooms and premade dresses and kimonos and suits and yukatas. Anyone changing into any outfit would find their own clothing reverted when they left the resting space, but at least any stains from eating would also be gone.
The Puzzles
Every so often in the maze, a character might step on a transport stone. It won't be there after they step on it, separating them from whomsoever they had been walking the labyrinth with. They would find themselves in one of the odd puzzle scenarios.
Please choose a puzzle teaser to learn what the room your character arrives in is like.
This room tends to draw people in that normally either do not speak or do not get along. This is a room for 2 or more characters, the more the better though please only one per player (Unless there are 3+ players, then they may each have up to 2).
IC plot hook: You have heard of a room with a grand oracle, there is a test you know to prove yourself worthy. Solve the riddle and the oracle will tell you some grand thing you did not know....
This room tends to draw in people that have people back home (or in other hub worlds for those with CRAU) who wish them harm and who would harm others to harm them. This is a room for three player characters from three different players each of whom must be willing to play an NPC as well. This is dream logic so the NPC will be affected by the constraints of the dream, so playing the NPC purely to canon or perfectly is not required.
IC plot hook: You are on a journey that is of the utmost importance! You must hurry! To the bridge! But beware! Beware of what? Trolls? Heights? High winds?! Worse! Beware: you will have to solve a logic puzzle! Oh, also heights.
This room tends to draw in those who either collect secrets, know a lot of secrets, or are terrible at keeping secrets. This is a room for any number of PCs, though no player can have more than half of the PCs in the scene. Players may divide up playing the NPCs as they see fit. There will be as many NPCs as PCs.
Are there times to not tell the truth when you know something horrible that someone else did? Are there times when telling on someone else is the only way to save yourself? Secret secret, I've got a secret, I've been hiding, but will it help me win?
Going to be blunt with you all, this is a nightmare version of the trolly problem, and this is the one puzzle without a set answer. This requires an odd number of PCs, and no player can have more than one third of the characters present. Seriously, though, this one is angst and nightmare fuel for the characters, choose with caution, you have been warned. But if you really really want to traumatize your kids, this one is for you. This one can be remembered after, and even run again by the same characters, though not in the same configuration, if you really want to - you monster. And yes, a character trapped in this one again can recall any previous runs if you want. Even if they otherwise can't.
This puzzle is just a-door-able, a twist on a classic logic puzzle. 2+ characters, no one player may play more than half of the characters in the scene. While this one can be repeated with different characters, as the answer will change, please note that all characters in any given attempt will have to agree and work together on this one.
If there is a lot of engagement then more puzzles can be added, as a number were cut due to constraints.
And no easy task was it indeed. Part of the issue was the labyrinth itself, a dark shadowed place of mists and fogs that obscure the walls and floor, that hide turns and make walls seem like walkways. There is an eerie haunting noise that springs up sometimes, like wind blowing across a narrow cave opening. But it is usually heard only when the wind was absent. And that wind? Sporadic, unpredictable, sometimes cold and chilling in more ways than one. Sometimes hot and humid.
This would be a great place for magic users to shine to help each other out, or since the maze was tall but seemed to open above to nothingness, those who could fly or air walk would seem to be able to help others easily win through. Except there is a problem... Well a few problems. But they all came down to the same basic issue. Every person, when in the maze, was, for reasons that may or may not make sense with dream logic, locked in a human looking body without access to any magic, powers, or inhuman biology. But on the other side... No one is or will get hungry. Or sleepy. Or need the bathroom.
But everyone looks human, even if they did not before. And the human form they are in is mostly static. Shape changers cannot change. Those who normally have wings no longer do. And even those who normally cannot be seen - Charas, ghosts, maybe even a Kwami - are also in independent human looking bodies. For some this could be wonderful, for others... The dream may already be a nightmare.
While their forms are static, their clothes however are somewhat malleable. Nothing that can grant anything useful, a hairpin removed vanishes before it could be used as a chisel or a pry. Or even as a lock pick. But someone who finds themselves for example in a hated long black coat could easily shift themselves into pants and a shirt for their choosing. And people who are used to magical expression can at least have mood outfits. There was another thing that could change as well, but it might take a while to discover it for some. The dreamers can be any age up until their oldest in game form. So adults can choose to be children again, if they wished. And yes this can help getting under things or getting taller to climb over things. But the ages will seem like an age slider on the same person, and there will be fewer changes perhaps than there were as the person actually grew up. Again, this makes sense in situ, because of dream logic.
In fact, for some suddenly in a human body... They might not recall ever having another form. Or maybe they do and this is really startling. There is a lot of room to play there. But one thing is clear, everyone is on equal footing for whatever the maze has to offer. No one has more or less powers than anyone else. And as no one will tire, endurance is not the factor it might normally be. So their advantages will lie in their ability to think creatively, their ability to keep going even when things seem hopeless. Their ability to work well with others. And, as they will soon learn, their logic.
For the maze is more than just twisting passageways of walls too smooth and too high to scale and a floor too covered in roiling mist to examine. The maze is littered with hidden transport stones. Each is so small that a single foot covers it completely, even the foot of a child, and when touched it transports the person who touched it and then is expended. Transport stones can take a dreamer to another part of the maze, or to a resting room or... To one of the puzzle rooms. But rarely will they arrive with whomever they had just been walking with. You know that rule about not splitting the party...? Yeah, The maze has never heard of it either.
The resting spaces are places where there are no puzzles. There may be food or other amenities, but everything in every resting space is designed to need to be used by at least two people at the same time. Everything about them seems to be encouraging people to work together, or play together, or even just lounge together. While powers are still nerfed in resting spaces, characters can be there in their maze-forms or in their own natural bodies if those things differ. Age and clothing can be played with in the resting spaces just as they can in the maze.
In fact, other than an attempt to enforce extravertism the resting rooms make no demands of the people within them. They may leave whenever they wish. There are no riddles or puzzles here except possibly the jigsaw version or in bound books for reading aloud. These are spaces that seem to be calmer places. The tension of the maze is only in a resting space if a dreamer brings it with them. One could bypass the whole maze if they are willing to ignore the nagging dream-like certainty that there is a reason to explore, and spend the whole time in a resting place. It is a place designed to be comfortable for everyone. Except, perhaps, the painfully shy.
That said, though, no resting place can ever have more than four people in it at a time. The exit is a one way passage, once someone leaves they only return if a transport stone randomly drops them there again. But no one will be forced to leave, except by their fellow dreamers. Or their own desperation to be somewhere less people-y. Each resting place does have a static transport stone, but they are often cleverly hidden and take two people to find it, though if they both touch it they will probably not both go to the same place.
The puzzle rooms however.... Those are a different story. They are always braced by at least two dreamers at a time, and often have NPCs dredged from the deepest parts of the dreamer's minds. Each poses a trial or trouble that needs to be overcome. Dreamers entering a puzzle room will feel there is a strong reason to complete the puzzle though they can't quite recall why. Just that it was important. All PC dreamers can collectively choose to quit a puzzle together, and if they do they will each be sent to a different resting space. But no one PC can leave a puzzle on their own, so noone can be abandoned in a situation they suddenly cannot "win".
Winning looks different in different puzzle rooms, of course. Each has its own victory condition. But there is one commonality amongst all the puzzle rooms.... And it is an important one. Once anyone leaves a puzzle room they find their memories of it hazy at best, where absent is the more common response. They cannot remember enough to tell anyone else what puzzle they faced when in a resting space or in the maze itself. And they certainly cannot remember how they won through. They might remember who was there with them, PC and NPC alike. And that they felt they needed to solve... Something. What that something was or how they solved it however, they could not recall. But they couldn't recall in that dream logic weird way where suddenly you are in a room full of masks at the brink of an active volcano and maybe it is weird that you can't remember how you got there, but that gap is hardly the thing that is bothering you just then.....
The Resting Spaces are places where the character transformation can be turned off, though powers are still nerfed. These are spaces designed to encourage cooperation, but also places to rest, blow off some steam, and just relax.
Resting Spaces Summaries
Resting Place 1
This room is huge and opulent. It easily could have held all the Missrecalled and Misery-called with room to spare. But the space didn't seem to belong entirely to itself. Like a clash between Isle and Auradon styles, this resting space felt like two stubborn designers took turns placing things, both unwilling to compromise. Some people might find the clashing colours and design elements hard to take...The walls of the room bowed outward and seemed to be made of polished metal that had been painted pale baby blue with white flowers painted on with more passion than artistry. But the walls were hard to see because they were draped with purple and gold gauze attached at celling or floor at unusual asymptotical angles.
One might think that the gauze would lend itself to soft dim lights. One would be wrong in this case as the gold washed rounded dome like ceiling was dotted with bright glaring white halogen, neon, or xenon looking lightbulbs which were curved in the same loopy daisy curves of the flowers on the walls. They were so bright they were hard to look at long. Trying anyway would invariably lead to dark spots in one's visions that in this case could almost make it look like the lights had menacing faces peering down at you. But that was absurd wasn't it? Who ever heard of an evil flower?
Then there were the tables. They were low to the ground, clearly meant for people to sit at them on the floor. They were circular with baby blue tablecloths covered with white lacy runners and doilies. There were gold and white tea pots, multiple at every table. But while there were tea pots and saucers and spoons there were, oddly, no teacups. The gold tea pots steamed with a faintly purple steam but would pour out no tea when tried. The white teapots poured out tea, but it was a different kind of tea every time it was poured.
At the tables were cushions on the floor, but with arms like arm chairs. Each cushion was on what looked and felt like a wobble plate. One person sitting on it would be too low to reach the table comfortably if they were an adult and at all as a small child. But two people sitting one on either side balanced it so both could reach the table. But when one moves, the other will feel it. The cushions were all either purple or white. The white seemed an especially risky choice given the teapots that lacked teacups.
There were also larger tables freestanding here and there. These clearly were not for sitting at as they were piled high with foods. There were plates, however the plates were so heavy as to need two hands to hold, and the utensils were also weighted heavily. Eating would need two people working together, especially as the plates were too heavy for the small tables to hold without tipping over.
The food on offer was also generally in servings clearly meant for more than one person with no easy obvious way to cut them to take less. But the options were varied and tempting looking to many. There were large double slices of various kinds of cakes - coconut cream, carrot, spice, chocolate, birthday cake with white confetti in a blue cake with white cream on top instead of frosting. There was cheesecake, but the cheese seemed to be... swiss...?
There were small pies that again were twice the size of what might have been single a serving. There was pumpkin pie, two different kinds of apple pie, date pie, treacle pie, and one square pie that tasted of not much of anything, though it made one think of math. Even for a dream realm this pie was imaginary....
There were trays of honey laden baklava with pistachio dust dyed purple and scattered over the top. For those who were brave there were large squares of something that looked a little like lightly marbleized dry sandy clay. It was dry as it looked. Dryer even. Thankfully it tasted better than it felt in the mouth. It was like eating sweet subtly flavored packed sand.
There were multiple kinds of bread puddings with different lavish sauces. There were custards and jam tarts. And there were huge sandwiches cut to look like small delicate finger sandwiches. Does anyone even know what watercress actually is?
For non-food related things to do there were curved bookcases in seemingly random patterns here and there filled with books, but none of them seemed to be what they actually turned out to be. Quite a few of them seemed to just be frustrating nonsense. The rest were fantasy novels and books about magic that might have been fantasy or might have been history - In this world it could be hard to tell.
There were seats near the book cases, or sometimes inside them, but they were all just off balance, like the armed cushions, clearly meant for two to keep the seat steady. Though for adults it might be a cozy two.
For those attuned to colours who have spent a fair amount of time in Auradon, they might notice that the blue is not quite the Auradon Prep shade of Blue, nor is the blue or are the golds the shades generally associated with Ben. And the purple is more reddish than the purples that Mal tends to play with.
From somewhere generally upwards, a song is playing.
Resting Space 2
This Resting Space was only a room in that it had walls and a ceiling. Both seemed distant, painted like open sky on a mostly clear day. The room itself spread out like a meadow in all directions seemingly. Only the door seemed close, and oddly it didn't seem to actually be part of the wall it was in theory nearest to.
The floor was a carpet of different grasses. To one direction in the distance was a field of roses in all manner of darker colours, and the further into the roses one went the more intricate the petals seemed. At the outer most set of roses they seemed to be one colour tipped in another. But further in the two colours formed ever more complex and interesting designs. But there were thick ropes of thorny vines making getting further in difficult. For one alone, it would be impossible to get far in at all without taking a lot of painful wounds from the thorns. But two together... The thorns were spaced far enough apart that someone could hold a vine up for someone else to pass under, but they would then need the vine held for them in order to pass under themselves.
Working together it would take a half hour or more to get to the deep center of the roses, but for some it would be very worth the time and effort, for the roses in the center are beautiful in a way that they only could be in a dream. The patterns looked like deliberate designs, and more... When the wind moved the designs seemed almost to move as well. On one a silhouette of a couple seemed to dance against the purple background of the petals. On another red drops seemed to fall like rain over black petals. Dark purple vines on a black and red background. Each rose at the center a different design, and there was a seemingly endless supply of them there.
From somewhere generally upwards, a song is playing.
If instead of the roses, one looked to another direction they would eventually come to the edge of what looks like a small pond. But with the knowledge one has in dreams without knowing, anyone approaching it knows that it is deep. Deadly deep. One can look into it safely only if someone is holding onto them as an anchor, for the water is deep enough to swallow a single person but not wide enough for two at once. So only by holding on to each other is it safe to look in the pond. But look in it long enough and you see interesting things, the kind of things that you realize you really want to talk to someone about....
More things can be found, wandering. A tall dark wood is off to one side, in the distance. The wood is deep and mysterious, but the paths, such as they are, are riddled with roots and stones so tall that two people need to work together to cross. But if someone did they are rewarded with a lovely sun dappled grove in the center. There is what looks like a rock garden with rocks covered in the softest moss ever, perfect for siting on. There is what looks like a castle, but always distant, just out of reach. And there is a single huge tree in the center that sparkles with rain in sun, even though it is not raining.
And to the last cardinal direction is a place where fire and air meet. There, waiting for whomever arrives, is a rack holding a lovely costume. A pair of gossamer butterfly wings and a belt with a long tail end. Almost like... Yes. Yes it is. A kite tail. There is also a huge brazier full of different kinds of flammable material, a bellow beside. It is the ultimate trust anti-fall. Whoever wears the butterfly wings can fly, but they are counting on someone below to hold the end of the kite string and to keep the fire going at a high enough heat to create the thermals keeping them aloft, but not so high a heat that it burns them to a crisp. Also keeping the heat even with the bellows without catching the string on fire....
Resting Place 3
This Resting place looks huge at first glance. A large boat with blue sails and a beachfront town with all sorts of interesting looking shops. A closer examination would show the truth however. The shops are all false fronts. The ship has a deck, but the door below is the door back into the maze. From somewhere generally upwards, a steel drum version of this song is playing.
Still, there is plenty to do in this resting space. The sea rocks the boat gently. For those who don't get sea sick, the motion might be relaxing. The same goes for the sound of the waves gently kissing the sand. There is enough of a sandy area for people to bury each other, dig for treasure, or make sand sculptures. There are fishing rods and plenty of fish in the sea. But the fishing rods are huge and take two people to cast, and two people to reel in. There are plenty of beach toys - shovels and pails and harlequin striped beach balls with bells inside - but they are inside a large treasure chest with a heavy lid. One person has to hold the lid open while another fetches the toys, because the lid does not stay open on its own, nor does it open enough to lay flat.
As for the boat... Well relaxing on deck doesn't need two people, but setting up to relax does. The hammocks can't be put up by a single person because if they aren't hooked up at the same time, the already hooked side will slip free when the other side is being put up. Getting on and off the ship also requires help. One person to hold the ladder steady, the other to use it.
And while the shops seem to be façades with doors that are simply painted on... There are stalls outside each shop full of all sorts of merchandise and food. Anything you could think of that might reasonably be sold at a beachside stand is there for the taking. So long as you pay for it. There are stacks of sand dollars by each stall, but they need to be placed in the register before the items can be removed from the stalls, or the food and drink consumed. And the person taking it cannot be the one to run the register. Do check out the selection of toy swords! Everything from delicate foil looking weapons to large monstrosities of wood carved and painted to look metal and even wooden Keyblade looking toys.
Things bought at the stalls can be used anywhere in the rest stop. You can play with the swords on the beach, buy fancy drinks and take them to the ship if you can figure out how. You can try and use the buckets to flood the beach or to fill the sea with sand. The only places that items from the resting space cannot be brought are out into the maze or to other resting places. You can buy all you want, but enjoy it while you have it, because you can't take it with you.
Resting Place 4
This resting area is a huge glade in the middle of a deep dark wood. The trees all around seem almost alive. Well, they're trees, so they are. But this is alive more in a people way than a typical plant way. Almost like they are watching. Always watching.
One of the trees has a door in it, and the door has a symbol of crossed wands, and the doorknob is a large dark purple berry.
From somewhere generally upwards, a song is playing.
Within the glade is the sharp scent of numerous different herbs growing where grass might otherwise be. For those familiar with them, any number of herbs can be identified, but not alone. For each person can tell them apart by use of only one sense. So someone might be able to smell that one area has mint and cilantro, but it all looks and feels like grass. Another person could maybe see the different shapes of the plants, but not smell or taste the differences, and it all feels like grass. But working together enough herbs can be picked to finish the meal.
What meal? Oh, right. The glade has more than just herbs within. At its center is a giant cauldron bubbling merrily. It looks like some grand potion and shines with a golden light across the top of it, throwing back reflections of whomever looks within. Testing the potion however would prove it to be soup. But a very weak and bland soup. Mix it enough to disturb the golden sheen and one could see that the base of the soup is some sort of rock. No wait, it isn't a rock. It's a rock... Lobster....
The soup has the potential to be good, but it desperately needs flavoring help, it needs herbs. But... The right combination of herbs. While there are several combinations that would make the stew delicious, there are as many that would ruin it. Working together might be the best way to ensure a delicious meal for all.
But there is also the difficulty of how to cut the herbs. There is a large cutting board surface in the "grass" but it is bumpy and uneven at the bottom. One person will have to hold it steady while another cuts and preps on it.
Once the herbs are in, the cauldron needs to be stirred. There is a large wand in it for stirring, but it is so oversized that it will take at least two people working together to make it move.
As for serving the soup, there is a huge ladle laying nearby that seems made of strong shed bark. It is heavy and takes two hands to lift when the bowl of it is full of soup, especially given how much a rock lobster weighs. So one person should ladle while another holds the bowls up close to the lip of the cauldron.
Whenever the resting space empties, the soup reverts to its bland state once more, ready for the choices of those who would find the room next.
Resting Place 5
The floor and walls of the restaurant were made of grey stones, with the ceiling being a mix of brown wooden boards and brown shingles. The whole thing had a theme as well that didn't seem to quite go with the feeling of being in a castle that the stones implied, or a small home as the ceiling did. The restaurant did not seem to go with itself at all, honestly. It was more like someone took a whole community and tried to shove all of its aesthetics into a single structure. And from the speakers, a song is playing on repeat one. (CW, one minor bad word)
As for the theme of the restaurant... It seemed like a science lab. The tables all were shining metal. The utensils were all made to look like scientific instruments which could be interesting if not for the fact that they do a horrible job of picking up food and getting it neatly into a person's mouth.
The walls had huge computer like displays with readouts that scroll on the screens except that instead of letters and numbers and useful symbols for scientific notations all the symbols seemed to be... Various sorts of heart emojis? There is a way to turn the displays from that scroll to something more entertaining, though. All it takes is someone keying in the emoji in the order they are scrolling on the screen at the same pace they are vanishing. The problem is... The keyboard keeps remapping with every pressed button, making touch typing impossible. One person will have to read out the symbols and another type them. But how many ways can you swiftly describe different kinds of hearts...?
If anyone can manage it though the screens flicker to what seems like a television station. All of the stories feel somewhat familiar, like someone was telling your whole life with their scenes. But at least it was mostly parts that you'd want to revisit. They were killing you softly with your memories.
Of course there were other things to do in the restaurant than admire the theming or watch shows that were suspiciously similar to some of your best memories. It was a restaurant, there is food. Unfortunately only authorized personal may make the food. But on the plus side there are plenty of what looked like audio-animatronics with staff uniform looking bodies! On the minus side though they are inoperative. See, they are wind up dolls on wheels essentially. And they are huge. So one person can stand behind them to wind them up, but can't see past them to see where they need to go. And the moment their key is not being wound, they stop moving. So it will take team work, as the winder can move them as they wind, but can't see where to go, but with help of a seeing eye friend... Dinner could be served. By authorized personnel only, of course.
When it comes to cleaning up, though... Well golly, everyone is authorized for that! And with how clumsy the eating instruments are, there is plenty to clean up....
Resting Place 6
This resting place is full of larger than life sized games. The floor is a series of carpets with grids on them. One is pale brown with a darker brown grid. Another is black and red alternating squares. Another black and white alternating squares. There are pieces for various games at the same scale as the rugs. Huge Go stones as large as lazy susans. There were Othello chips like double sided serving platters. Chess and Blood Chess pieces as tall as the people waiting to play with them.
There are also countless games on tables scattered between the rugs. All manner of games, in larger forms than usual. There was a jenga like tower game. There was a game like dominos but with square tiles that had pictures of landscape parts and bits of castles and roads rather than dots.
One part of the room was an inset ice rink, complete with skates. There were game boards carved into the ice for games like tick tack toe and double tick tack toe and even.... Yeah that was a hopscotch court. On the ice. And two basketball hoops. So you can make basketball even more dangerous for a little one on one. There is also what looks like a horse drawn Zamboni, except there were no horses and the harness up close... Looked like it was for two humans rather than one horse...
Whatever game or games are chosen, from somewhere generally above, a song began to play when ever the characters also began to play.
Resting Place 7
The resting place was like a temple of stones at sunrise, all the pale stones washed in the colours of fire from the sky. The stairs were broken and turned to rubble in places, so it needs two people working together to climb to the top. At the top however it was like a whole other world. From somewhere generally above, a song began to play as the characters reached the top of the temple, however the lyrics were very muffled so that only the chorus could be fully understood. The tune would be an ear worm for some time yet, however. (CW: Star Wars cantina costumes)
From the top of the temple, the characters could see a mountain vista in the far distance with a city skyline in the middle distance. All the buildings in the skyline look like various designs of space rockets pointed upwards in blueish grey metal. But those were all too distant to reach. Closer was the large flat top of the temple. It was in the same blue grey metal, but with a huge inset pool in the middle. The pool steamed faintly and was ringed by carvings of dragons. The dragons make it hard to get into the pool without help, as someone would need to climb up to the top of them before they could jump in. Thankfully there is a ladder on the inside to get back out. This isn't the Sims.
Inside the pool are all sorts of two person pool fun items. A huge pool float like raft that will tip over if a single person tries to climb on, but with someone holding the other side down, it is doable. There are sticks and rings hanging inside the nooks of various dragon carvings that can be thrown by one person for someone else to find when they sink to the bottom. The rings are all in reds and oranges with flame motifs and the sticks are all black with silver dots and paintings of various kinds of space ships, with different ones seemingly worth different amounts of points based on the numbers on them.
There were also swim fins, but they were all connected on their outside side for three legged swimming and doubled swim rings connected on one edge. There was also a large beach ball with a bell in it.
If someone wanted to do something other than swim, near the pool was a fire pit with seats around it, but turning it on requires two people doing the complex dance described in pictograms around the rim. There were long plastic sticks for roasting marshmallows but the sticks were so long that it would be awkward for someone to put a marshmallow on their own stick, but team work makes the smores work. There were also squares of red salt chocolate but it would start melting as soon as someone tried to break it if not held by the label, but with the label it was too hard to break for one person. There was also a large box of gram crackers. The largest box of gram crackers ever, the box made of metal in the shape of a treasure chest, the top won't stay open on its own though and is very heavy, so one person might have to open it while someone else raided the box for the crackers. But do you trust that other person not to drop the lid on your back...?
Resting Place 8
This resting area was almost stifling hot for those not used to the heat. It was a huge forge filled with metal rods and tools, all built around a central furnace. There was an anvil and hammers and lots of gloves... But to keep the fire hot enough to heat the metal, the bellows would have to be constantly worked. The shovel for the coal was huge, needing two people to refill it. Thankfully someone could hammer the metal on their own, so long as someone else was holding and turning the thing being hammered. The metal rods were too large to be picked up by a single person to put into the heat or putting it on the anvil once heated. Whenever the characters would start working actively a song would start playing from somewhere deep in the heart of the forge.
There wasn't much to do in this place except working the forge, but there were all sorts of video guides on one wall to explain how to do various tasks and make various things on the anvil and with the draw plates. But the videos all need two people to ride stationary bikes at the same time to power the screens, and both will have to use the keypads on the bikes to choose the video, one bike has only the scroll features, and the other has the select, play and pause buttons. At least each bike has its own speakers so its own volume control. How much that helps when you are side by side though.... Well, maybe you can build something to cut down that issue?
Resting Place 9
The resting space is set up for those who wish to train, but there are no targets or training dummies, and there are exactly two of each sort of weapon and shield available, and the floor is broken up into different shapes and sizes of training courts. There were strips and plug in armor for fencing, large rings like for sumo, wider rectangles for more generic fighting types, and even mechanical horses for jousting.
The sky isn't off limits either. Not that anyone could fly on their own in these spaces, but there were fake wings on a rack that someone could strap on. If someone has their own wings in their natural body this either gives them back or gives them power to fly again. For those who couldn't fly before, these wings allowed for it. But no, the wings and their effects cannot be taken out of the resting place. But there are all sorts of cool weapons to mess around with that worked better in the sky, like morning stars and spears. But for those unused to wings, there might be more of a learning curve than usual there.
Thankfully there was also a first aid station on the ground with all sorts of bandages and braces and splints. There was bandage tape and cloth bandages with little metal clips, there were topical creams and packages of painkillers, but each package held only one dose and took two people to open. Or at least three hands, since they had to be gripped by three hands at once to open.
From somewhere generally above a song was playing.
Anyone who leaves the resting area will find that like the wings, they leave their wounds and aches and pains behind.
For those who needed a break for a cool down, there was a sauna and beach style outside showers to rinse off. And the area came full complete with training outfits to pull on over their clothes and fluffy robes for after washing up, but they'll find that they don't need to change into either, in fact they can't! The only way clothing can be removed in this resting area at all is in the first aid station, and then only what is needed to be moved to get to the wound. But the clothing people wear in will somehow with dream logic like certainty be comfortable enough to work out in, won't get embarrassingly clingy or transparent when wet, and will dry as soon as a robe is donned. Anyone who is still wet or smelly when they leave this resting space will not be once they pass the doorway or touch the transport stone.
Resting Place 10
The resting area looked like a twilight draped town where all the buildings are made of bricks that range from pale sandy brown through every shade of brown or orange that could be found in a city at sunset. The sky above was a soft twilight full of stars. There were all sorts of areas to explore in this rather large seeming resting space. There was an ice cream cart that had an opening on top that was so tall that one would practically have to climb up the side to get to the ice cream, but if they did it would tip over unless someone was holding the cart steady for them. Inside they would find every kind of ice cream on a stick they could imagine, whatever flavor they wanted.
There was an activities board not far from the ice cream that suggested all sorts of two person activities like hacky sack and beach ball volleyball in the wide open circular space near the poster. If two people say the name of any of the game at the same time they'll find they have everything they need for the game sitting at their feet. The border of the poster is black and white checkerboard except at the top where it has what looks like two gladiators wrestling.
There is a hidden hangout area in an underground room, but to get there two people have to work together to open the large chain link fence door. But inside the area is super comfortable so long as the people inside don't mind getting a little cozy, because every sort of chair or bench os on a pivot plate with a ball under it, one person sitting on either side will balance it, but one alone will have to constantly work to stay upright... Though that could be fun too!
Outside, there is a small train car that runs on a rail throughout the whole area, but it moves fast when no one is on it. Throughout the resting area though, there are hand breaks. When someone pulls on one, the train slows to a stop. But as soon as the break is let go of, the train zips off again. But there is a break on the roof of the train as well, so if someone gets up there, they can stop it for someone else to join them. There are also speed controls up there and hand grips so the riders can choose to take a slow cruise, or a fast thrill ride, or anything between. There is no way into the train car, but the top is a lot of fun to ride on.
Interestingly, when on top of the train the whole city, rather than looking sunset and twilight dappled, looked silver with a dark blue sky. Getting off the train would make it look sunset washed again.
There was one more area, a large circular area that took up the center of the resting place. It was ringed by stones with small window like gaps to let in light, so that inside, the sandy arena was speckled in hints of sunset shaded lights. There is a barrel of practice weapons just inside the arena and a pair of belt pouches that are filled with spheres that will pop out when the wearer is hit. None of the weapons seem to do any harm no matter where they hit or how hard they are swung or thrown. There was also a button that would summon various card board cut out looking monsters to fight. Some of them have remotes so one person can control the monster the other is fighting.
In each area of the town, a slightly different remix of a song was playing.
No matter how small though, no monster or weapon can be taken out of the arena other than the belt pouches of balls and what looked like boffer foam clubs. And even those cannot leave the resting space. Nor can the ice cream, even with hammer space. Sorry. But feel free to hum that tune, it is really catchy after a while, isn't it?
Resting Place 11
This resting space was an elegant looking ball room converted to a restaurant full of tables covered in lovely white linen tablecloths with carefully knit lace over it in a shimmering silvery wave. Over that the plates were fine china with a delicate sakura pattern, and there were matching tea cups on saucers. There were also delicate crystal cups. Each table is set for two people with chairs across from each other, but the chairs are on a long bar that is essentially a seesaw with its center of balance under the table. The table was set up so that each person can only reach their table setting if there was someone in the other seat. But there was also all the food at the center of the table, and to reach that someone would have to somehow stand on the bar when it was up on their side. Might be a challenge for characters to figure out how to feed themselves.
When they do get to the food, however, they'll find that it is a mix of high end French food, and high end Japanese food. There was everything from duck á l'range to sushi boats. Even the desserts went from cinnamon creme macrons to red bean wagashi mochi. Anything in high end French or Japanese cuisine can be found on the table, though no matter how two people sat, the things they would like best would always be on the other side, leading characters to need to find a way to work together even more.
Quietly, a song was playing over the speakers. Whenever anyone rose to dance, however, it changed in favor of... other music.
There was still a section of the ballroom floor left open for characters who want to dance. Whenever two characters both step into the open section of the dance floor, music will start. The music choices would be something made for two people to dance to from a character on the dance floor's home world. If neither world had any such music, then French or Japanese music would start instead. The music would continue until either character leaves the open area.
There was an upper floor balcony looking out over the dance floor, but the balcony was filled with dressmaker dummies and drafting tables, art supplies, sewing machine, bolts and bolts of fabric. There was lace and beading and all sorts of trim and ribbon. There were also kimono stands with lovely kimonos and changing rooms and premade dresses and kimonos and suits and yukatas. Anyone changing into any outfit would find their own clothing reverted when they left the resting space, but at least any stains from eating would also be gone.
Every so often in the maze, a character might step on a transport stone. It won't be there after they step on it, separating them from whomsoever they had been walking the labyrinth with. They would find themselves in one of the odd puzzle scenarios.
Please choose a puzzle teaser to learn what the room your character arrives in is like.
Puzzle Room Teasers
Puzzle Room # 1 - Oracle - No CWs
This room tends to draw people in that normally either do not speak or do not get along. This is a room for 2 or more characters, the more the better though please only one per player (Unless there are 3+ players, then they may each have up to 2).
IC plot hook: You have heard of a room with a grand oracle, there is a test you know to prove yourself worthy. Solve the riddle and the oracle will tell you some grand thing you did not know....
Puzzle Room # 2 - Defensive Herding - CWs: Possible violence, trauma, acrophobia
This room tends to draw in people that have people back home (or in other hub worlds for those with CRAU) who wish them harm and who would harm others to harm them. This is a room for three player characters from three different players each of whom must be willing to play an NPC as well. This is dream logic so the NPC will be affected by the constraints of the dream, so playing the NPC purely to canon or perfectly is not required.
IC plot hook: You are on a journey that is of the utmost importance! You must hurry! To the bridge! But beware! Beware of what? Trolls? Heights? High winds?! Worse! Beware: you will have to solve a logic puzzle! Oh, also heights.
Puzzle Room # 3 - Caged Concerns - CWs: incarceration
This room tends to draw in those who either collect secrets, know a lot of secrets, or are terrible at keeping secrets. This is a room for any number of PCs, though no player can have more than half of the PCs in the scene. Players may divide up playing the NPCs as they see fit. There will be as many NPCs as PCs.
Are there times to not tell the truth when you know something horrible that someone else did? Are there times when telling on someone else is the only way to save yourself? Secret secret, I've got a secret, I've been hiding, but will it help me win?
Puzzle Room # 4 - Trolly Trauma - CWs: Death, pain, moral choices.
Going to be blunt with you all, this is a nightmare version of the trolly problem, and this is the one puzzle without a set answer. This requires an odd number of PCs, and no player can have more than one third of the characters present. Seriously, though, this one is angst and nightmare fuel for the characters, choose with caution, you have been warned. But if you really really want to traumatize your kids, this one is for you. This one can be remembered after, and even run again by the same characters, though not in the same configuration, if you really want to - you monster. And yes, a character trapped in this one again can recall any previous runs if you want. Even if they otherwise can't.
Puzzle Room # 5 - Honesty Is Such A Confusing Word - No CWs
This puzzle is just a-door-able, a twist on a classic logic puzzle. 2+ characters, no one player may play more than half of the characters in the scene. While this one can be repeated with different characters, as the answer will change, please note that all characters in any given attempt will have to agree and work together on this one.
If there is a lot of engagement then more puzzles can be added, as a number were cut due to constraints.
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Puzzle Room Sign ups
Please post the form here when you are ready for the puzzle to be dropped into your thread!
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Puzzle Room Requests
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Finished Puzzles
If you think you finished but are not sure you have the right answer this is also the place to post it.